Category: Carriageworks

ATYP in its vision statement sets out “To be the leading Australian youth theatre, inspiring and nurturing imagination, confidence and creativity in young people across the country.” In pursuing that endeavour Tim Jones has invited Meryl Tankard to work with a group of young people on VX 18504 and for Ms Tankard it is a re-visit to a work she created some time ago. It was an opportunity to re-imagine VX 18504 through the experiences of young people. VX 18504 was the army service number of Meryl Tankard’s father. The performance examined the theme of conflict in society from the…

AIM: To explore a way of performing. To develop a style of theatre that explores the possibilities of the instrument (physical and vocal) and a new form of expression that is different from the expected. (As an art form are our methods dated? Have we developed as openly as say the plastic arts or music? TOOLS: A swimming pool. A glass museum case. (At least large enough to display a full grown man.) A set of metal gurney tables with kitchen equipment. eg A juicer, a blender, a micro wave oven, a cutting board, kitchen utensils (especially knives), some foods…

  First up in May is Dean Walsh’s BACK FROM FRONT at the Performance Space at Carriageworks. BACK FROM FRONT began as a short solo work called EX-SERVICED in 2002. It was according to Mr Walsh “a personal response to my grandfather’s disclosure of some very disturbing circumstances he experienced “ in the Second World War. This work has now grown to cover a much larger canvass of interest. “a poetic reflection on the cycles of violence from a global perspective to domestic and individual unrest”. Other reflections are “on the loss of innocence” and “about deep hope – a…

First up in March was a Sydney Theatre Company offer from its New or Experimental Theatre wing WHARF2LOUD. They have invited the De Quincey Co to present: ’embrace: GUILT FRAME’. Usually this company is seen at The Performance Space in Sydney, a space known for its experimental nature. Tess De Quincey and Peter Snow presented a 45 minute experience of “art” within the frame work of a gilt picture frame. This is one of a series of explorations using structural elements drawn from The Natyasastra – an ancient Indian treatise on artistic practice, in which the performers negotiate a series…

Sydney is famous in February for the SYDNEY GAY AND LESBIAN MARDI GRAS month-long Festival. Two of the projects I saw were, firstly, a short new work THE FABULOUS PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW by Brent Thorpe at the Cleveland Street Theatre. The text is muddled and the Gay Politics feel dated but there are some amusing “sketch” comedy bits. The direction by Anthony Skuse and the really marvelous Design by Rita Carmody supported gorgeously by the Lighting Design of Verity Hampson has more than a whiff of the old Lindsay Kemp theatrics. Arky Michael gives a brilliantly dark physical, vocal…